Quebec’s French language minister said work on Bill 96 is not moving fast enough.
The government’s reform of the French-language charter is in the clause-by-clause stage.
The bill contains 201 articles. After 60 hours of committee work, the National Assembly recessed Thursday afternoon having studied about a quarter of the bill so far.
Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette said he didn’t think the bill was advancing fast enough, and he blamed the opposition parties.
“We have to adopt that bill very quickly because each day that passes, French is declining in Quebec and we need the tools that are in the bill so that we are able to change the decline of French,” he said.
When asked if he felt the bill could be adopted before the National Assembly takes a two-week recess for March break, he said, “It doesn’t depend on me. You have to ask that question to the opposition parties.”
Thursday’s committee debated an article that concerns temporary foreign workers.
Jolin-Barrette explained that because of the labour shortage the number of temporary foreign workers coming to Quebec has “exploded”. They can apply for an exemption to Bill 101 in order to send their kids to school in English.
Bill 96 aims to limit that exemption to three years.
The minister said this provides an incentive to parents who plan to stay longer than three years in Quebec to send their kids to school in French off the bat.
Jolin-Barrette wasn’t able to say how many temporary workers send their kids to school in English. Liberal MNA David Birnbaum called this a “red herring.” He asked if the government was trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.
Earlier this week, the committee accepted an article that stipulates the public service can only use French in written correspondence with immigrants except for health services.
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